2020 already a bit of a dream team, though. Hopefully Dang and Adam Chaney (both known Cal visitors) end up all as Bears.

Dave's probably trying to get his hands on as many top recruits through 2020, since 2021 doesn't seem to showcase too much talent, apart from select swimmers like Tim Connery (SwimMAC), Joshua Matheny (Pittsburgh), Jack Alexy (NJ), with a handful of internationals.

I also heard that high end recruits Luke Maurer (a double Stanford swimming legacy), and Canadian stand-out Sabastian Somerset were also on recuiting visits. Michael Jensen's younger brother, Matthew was also spotted. I was told by my source that they visited Cal during the same weekend Urlando and Destin Lasco.

Foothill's Cal-bound Calvin David was a double winner, taking first in the 200 freestyle in 1:36.21 and powering himself to victory in the 500 free in 4:19.41.

"Calvin's one heck of a swimmer," said Foothill coach Danny Weber, who has worked with David for years. "He's always had great control from the time he was 7. He's always had great body position. He's just developed to the point where he can feel the pace in his head, how fast he is going. Very talented. Very cerebral. That's how he continues to push himself to new levels."

The boys' meet, while missing Gianluca Urlando, will have Hunter Ingram and Calvin David of Foothill, seeded 1-2 in the 200 free. David is also top seed in the 500 free by a margin of 4.5 seconds, while Ingram is the 3rd entrant in the 100 free. Bellarmine senior Max Saunders leads the field in the 100 free (43.52) by 8/10 and is seeded 3rd behind Ingram and David in the 200 free.

Thank you for summarizing the class of 2019. These nine will participate this coming swim season! How many seniors did the Bears graduate other than Seliskar, Norman, etc. Is this class finished now? Will a national class ranking of recruit classes be coming out soon by Swimswam or another service...GO BEARS!

Will a national class ranking of recruit classes be coming out soon by Swimswam or another service...

I would not be surprised if Swimswam has already penned the bulk of their "Top 12 recruiting classes in the nation for 2019" writeups, but perhaps are waiting for CIF State Champs to conclude this Saturday before going to press, in order to be fair to all the recruits from CA.

SImilarly with their (final) re-rank of the Top 20 recruits in the HS class of 2019...

How many seniors did the Bears graduate other than Seliskar, Norman, etc.

Graduating class, on the men's side = Seliskar, Norman, Thomas, Sand, Takahashi, and Puczkowski. Big shoes to fill with Seli, Norman, and Thomas in particular for their much-appreciated and highly valued points contributions at NCAAs (always fun to remember the trio of individual championships that Seliskar pulled off this year!), with Sand also putting up strong breaststroke duties, individually and in relays.

(The class that will be replacing our current legion of top-20 studs from their respective rankings: Mefford, Julian, Carr, Hoffer, and Grieshop leading the pack, with Biondi, Hatch, Daugherty and divers Robinson and Kloos in the mix.)

[/ol]Running second was 17-year-old Jason Louser, thanks to an impressive breaststroke leg. The Cal commitfinished the race in 4:27.02, slightly ahead of Island Swim Club's Josh Zakala, who picked up third with a 4:28.16.

Louser was our fast riser the last time around, having cut 10 seconds off his 400 IM as a junior. We mentioned at the time that he needed to come around in other events to justify that ranking, but his improvement curve suggested that was likely - and it sure was. Louser cut another two seconds in his 400 IM, two more in his 200 IM, two in his 200 breast and about one in his 100 breast. Now the intriguing drop is in the 500, where Louser went from 4:30 to 4:23 in his senior year. He's a huge, lanky swimmer whose body type might be better suited for the mid-distances. His breaststroke is outstanding, and the way he brings home this 400 IM (not even his lifetime-best) has to have Cal coach Dave Durden thinking Louser could be a beast through a 500 free/400 IM/200 breast combination. Louser also had a heck of a summer in long course, dropping from 4:27 to 4:18 in the 400 meter IM.

I certainly am not getting any Cal recruiting vibe on Concord Terrapin stud Minakov and news of his visiting Florida may well be a clue into his recruitment objectives. Former Terrapin teammate Moldovian Alexei Sancov is a frosh at USC and I believe was never a serious consideration for Durden ("fit"?).

"Gators have done very well with their international recruits (Szaranek, Switowski etc), and given that they're lacking on recruits with Dressel et al gone, they may have more to offer Minakov. We'd have to pay extra for Minakov as he is an international and only swimming in the states in the summer, unlike his buddy Sancov who now has a permanent resident card and is here to stay."

Andrei Minakov is listed on the roster of Energy Standard (Turkey), one of the eight founding clubs of the recently formed International Swimming League. This is a pro swimming league so it appears young Andrei has decided to forego college.

The LA-based LA Current features a host of former Bears including Nathan Adrian, Andrew Seliskar, Josh Prenot, Tom Shields, Kathleen Baker, Amy Bilquist, Katie McLaughlin, Farida Osman and Ryan Murphy but several other teams also have former Bears as well, e.g. Jacob Pebley and Justin Lynch swim for the New York Breakers while Natalie Coughlin is on the DC Trident roster. Somewhat ironically, the SF-based Cali Condors have zero former Bears, but mainly former Georgia, Florida and Texas athletes.

The league's primary financial sponsor is Konstantin Grigorishin, the father of former Cal swimmer Ivan Grigorishin, a very nice kid and well-liked teammate.

Cal has had the #1-ranked class two of the past three years, but last year checked in at just #8. This year's group splits the difference between those two levels. The Golden Bears didn't pull in a ton of top-20 recruits, but got a high-impact transfer, a great international and then a bunch of guys likely in the 21-50 range domestically.

Hugo Gonzalezwas the big get. A freshman standout for Auburn back in 2017, Gonzalez sat out last season, but plans to resurface for Cal this season. His production is elite: NCAA A final times in both IMs (3:35.7/1:40.6) and the 200 back (1:39.0). During his Auburn season, Gonzalez was great at conference but awful at NCAAs. He'll have to level that out to be the kind of scoring threat we're projecting him to be, but that's probably much easier to do in the Pac-12, where teams seem to care very little about the conference championships compared to the rough-and-tumble SEC.

The best part about Gonzalez: he should have three full years of college eligibility remaining, making him closer to a true college freshman than a typical upperclassmen transfer.Domestically, Cal got #12 Jason Louser, a fast-rising IMer from New York with massive potential. Louser has a huge frame, long arms and an excellent improvement curve in the IMs. He's not far off of NCAA invite status in the 400 IM (he was 3:45.87 last year), and is one of the class's better 200 IMers (1:46.00). Louser is also 53.9/1:57.0 in breaststroke, and should help ease the loss of former IM/breast standout Andrew Seliskar.

Adding to perhaps the nation's toughest breaststroke group is Swiss import Jacques Lauffer. A national teamer for Switzerland, Lauffer has been 1:01.6 and 2:11.4 in the long course breaststrokers. The latter, in particular, converts close to NCAA invite range. Long course to short course conversions are always difficult to project, but Lauffer has a chance to be a freshman scorer, especially with a lot of the top NCAA breaststrokers graduating.

And a surprise: Cal got a top dive recruit. That's been rare for Cal, but they're hoping to make it the norm with the completion of their on-campus platform diving facility in 2016. Nick Hart has represented Team USA at World Juniors, and has been top 20 at USA Diving Senior Nationals. Getting the Lafayette, Indiana prospect to leave Indiana a hotbed of diving and also home of Cal competitor Indiana University is a major get.

The rest of the class are high-end developmental guys. Calvin Davidis a 15:12 miler with great range down to a 1:36 200 free. He overlaps there with Hawaii's Michael Petrides, who is 1:35.2 and 44.3 in the 100 good relay depth. There are a couple of legacy commits that might excite fans with their names: Colby Meffordis a 1:35.5 freestyler and 1:44.4/48.2 backstroker, reminiscent of his older brother Bryce, now a Cal junior and key scorer at the last two NCAAs. Will Peltonis a 47.9 flyer and 48.7/1:45.5 backstroker, who follows former women's NCAA champ and older sister Elizabeth to Berkeley.

Then there's one more international: Sebastian Somersetout of Canada is a 55.9/2:00.1 backstroker in long course meters. He joins the burgeoning Cal backstroke factory, and brings in a 200 back time that could put him near NCAA invite status if it transfers over well from long course.

FAST RISER TO WATCH: Colby Mefford might not be as early a scorer as older brother Bryce was, but his improvement curve is excellent. Most notably, Colby went from 1:47.8 to 1:44.4 in the 200 back as a senior, and also from 1:37.2 to 1:35.5 in the 200 free.